World Suicide Prevention Day (WSPD) is an awareness day observed on 10 September every year, in order to provide worldwide commitment and action to prevent suicides, with various activities around the world.[1] The International Association for Suicide Prevention (IASP), collaborates with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Federation for Mental Health, to host World Suicide Prevention Day.[2] In 2011 an estimated 40 countries held awareness events to mark the occasion.[3] The United Nations issued 'National Policy for Suicide Prevention' in the 1990s which some countries use as a basis for their suicide policies.[4]

Suicide has a number of complex and interrelated and underlying contributing factors ... that can contribute to the feelings of pain and hopelessness. Having access to means to kill oneself – most typically firearms, medicines and poisons – is also a risk factor.[1]

— Campaign release

Contents

As of 2011[update], an estimated one million people per year die by suicide or "a death every 40 seconds or about 3,000 every day."[3] According to WHO there are twenty people who have a failed suicide attempt for every one that is successful, at a rate approximately one every three seconds.[5][6] Suicide is the "most common cause of death for people aged 15 – 24."[7] More people die from suicide than from murder and war; it is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide.[1][8] According to WHO, suicide accounts for nearly half of all violent deaths in the world.[6]Brian Mishara, IASP president, noted that, "more people kill themselves than die in all wars, terrorist acts and interpersonal violence combined."[9] The number of people who die by suicide is expected to reach 1.5 million per year by 2020.[8]

The UN noted that suicide bombers' deaths are seen as secondary to their goal of killing other people or specific targets and the bombers are not otherwise typical of people committing suicide.[4]

One way where individuals raise awareness on World Suicide Prevention Day

According to a WHO press release, one third of worldwide suicides were committed with pesticides, "some of which were forbidden by United Nations (UN) conventions."[4] WHO urges Asian countries to restrict pesticides that are commonly used in failed attempts, especially organophosphate-based pesticides that are banned by international conventions but still made in and exported by some Asian countries.[10] From 1996–2006 pesticide ingestion accounted for an estimated 60–90 percent of suicides in China, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad.[10] WHO reports an increase in pesticide suicides in other Asian countries as well as Central and South America.[10] It is estimated that such painful failed attempts could be reduced by legalizing controlled voluntary euthanasia options, as implemented in Switzerland.

In some countries, such as China, young people 15–34 years old are more likely to die by suicide than by any other means.[12]

According to WHO, in 2009 the four countries with the highest rates of suicide were all in Eastern Europe; Slovenia had the fourth highest rate preceded by Russia, Latvia, and Belarus.[13] This stays within findings from the start of the WSPD event in 2003 when the highest rates were also found in Eastern European countries.[14] The countries with the lowest rates tend to be in Latin America, "Muslim countries and a few Asian countries."[14] There is a lack of information from most African countries.[14]